avon breast cancer walk

Catholic Women Work, Walk Together to Fight Breast Cancer

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 4/26/07)

When she was 9, Erin French lost her mother, Kathleen, to a two-year battle with breast cancer. Nine years later, the now 18-year-old is ecstatic to finally be eligible to walk in this year’s Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Washington May 5 and 6 in memory of her mother and in honor of the millions of women affected by the disease. The 39-mile walk will stretch from the Kennedy Center through Washington to Silver Spring, Md., and back over two days.
Erin and her stepmother, Barb, both parishioners of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Lake Ridge, are part of Team Bosom Buddies along with Shannon Abrell; Andrea George, parishioner of Holy Family Parish in Dale City; Denise Jones, parishioner of Sacred Heart Parish in Manassas; and Sharon Privett.
Barb, a divorced mother of two, merged her family with that of Dirk French’s when they married and she adopted Dirk’s four children, the oldest of whom is Erin.
“This year when I agreed to (walk), it was really at Erin’s urging,” Barb said. “I think it’s been a great opportunity from the mother/daughter aspect. It’s something she and I are doing together that means a lot to both of us.”
The Washington walk is one in a series of eight nationwide walks; other locations include Boston, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Charlotte. More than $42.6 million was raised in the series last year, with $5.8 million in Washington.
For the cause that is “really dear to my heart,” Erin said she has raised $1,500 of her $1,800 goal. Two other team members are still working to reach their fund-raising goals. “I can only imagine the kinds of things we’re going to accomplish with these thousands and thousands of dollars,” Erin said.
She doesn’t have to imagine, though. According to the Avon Foundation, an accredited 501(c)(3) charity, the money funds everything from breast cancer education, awareness, screening and prevention to diagnosis, treatment, support services and scientific research into the cause, prevention, treatment and cure of the disease.
Breast cancer “is one of those things that seems to affect so many people,” Barb said, including the under-privileged. She likes that much of the money raised goes back to the city in which the walk takes place. There are many people in the Washington area who can’t afford proper screening, Barb said. And with breast cancer, as with any cancer, screening can lead to early discovery, which can lead to quick, effective treatment.
The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2007 more than 180,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States, with 40,000 deaths.
“I have four daughters,” Barb said. “I would love if they didn’t have to worry about this growing up.” And if not them, then their daughters.
Erin knows that when she walks, she will set an example for her five siblings, especially her younger sisters.
“I can just tell they look up to me,” she said. “I can see them try to emulate me no matter what I do.”
Barb said that when she married, her faith was at an all-time low, but her husband’s strong faith “rubbed off on me.
“This is a family that has just been knocked down, dragged and knocked down again,” she said, “and yet their faith has been so strong.” As a result, “I know my faith has blossomed.”
Barb and other team members have even integrated prayer into their training routines.
“While training I have been saying the rosary and Sharon has been listening to the Bible on tape,” she said. “We spend so much time walking that it’s been great to take that time to say the rosary or dedicate the walk to some of the intentions of my friends.”
George, Barb’s best friend and single mother of Samantha, 17, also knows the ill effects of cancer. Many of her inlaws died of breast cancer and her husband died in 1997 of cancer. Now it’s starting to appear in her daughter’s generation.
“I know that something needs to be done,” said George, also a foster mother for Catholic Charities. Last spring she took a Girl Scout troop to breast cancer awareness day at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore where they listened to both survivors and the daughters of survivors speak. She felt called to act and decided to walk.
“I cannot do breast cancer research, I cannot cure breast cancer, but I can raise money,” George said.
Erin, too, feels the call to serve.
“As a family we do a lot of volunteer stuff,” she said. “I am trying to find a way I can make volunteering my life. I get such a rush from volunteering and doing stuff for other people.”
Instead of just donating money, “I want to get out there and actually do something for other people who are less fortunate than I,” she said. “I have a responsibility as a Christian and as Erin French.”
And God?
“Without Him, I would be nowhere,” Erin said.
During her mother’s illness and death, Erin, as the oldest child, stepped up to help out with the family.
“Even though I thought I was juggling so much to bring comfort to my family, there are people out there who have it so much worse than I do,” she said. Now, years later, though her birth mother will never be replaced, her father has been able to find love again, and she has been blessed with a new mother and new siblings.
“I look at all the changes and I can’t believe it. I thank God every single day,” Erin said. “Life is so ephemeral and it’s so transient. We have to live each and every day like it’s our last.”
For information or to donate go to www.avonwalk.org.

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.